Maintenance

New job. Looks like a good one.

I'm maintenance, jack of all trades, shuttle driver, on call guy in khakis at the Residence Inn here in Oklahoma City.

My creative background was a mysterious big plus for the job.

And it's full time, nice regular 5 days a week schedule.

The main thing they want is an even temperament in dealing with residents.

Billy club in the pocket only to be used for the Gorham types.

I feel focused.

We'll see how long that lasts.

Attention Ellis! Ronnie, too...

King Kong on Broadway

From A New Story....

I have no idea if this one will work. Still trying to find the right look.
Talking animals...so cliché.

Comic-Con Registration Wednesday (Tomorrow)!

Don't forget to go online tomorrow morning at 10:00 PST and register for your badge.  I'm sure they will be sold out within hours.  They were last year.  They ran out of guest badges quickly.

I'll do the color and add to this thread

SCUD turns 20 this Wednesday.

Invitation from Rob Schrab to the public to send him Birthday Cards.

To me it's like Tank Girl.

Always dug the art and never read them closely.

 Stole some color scheme notions from Sugar Rush in Wreck It Ralph

 I added the rough so you could tell me you wish it looked more like the rough.

Pagliacci: Most of the Rest

You can click HERE for shots of the cast and see if I did them justice--they only put these photos up after I finished (otherwise I would have cheated). Really fun assignment!

Pagliacci Sampler

Had a really fun time drawing at the San Diego Opera rehearsal last night. Scotty Buncake made an appearance, as did Eric Shannower--and I got to meet Batton Lash. I think we were the only four drawing....

I warmed up with pencil, then went to felt-tip marker. The markers were exciting, but a little overwhelming with so much going on. I felt like I was getting too involved with the drawings, not watching the people onstage enough. Switched back to pencil for this one here, which was my last sketch. I brought it home and colored it up with markers. I was kind of all over the place, but this one came out nice, I think. Tho' it looks too much like it was done from a photo (it wasn't!).

(Of course there's an evil hunchback involved...and clowns.) And we got not one, not two, but THREE opera laughs. Scotty said this was the thing he was hoping for most, so he left a happy customer.

I'm looking forward to drawing the next one (should happen this time next month).

And oh, yeah: before the opera I got to have Doritos and Pellegrino with Tom (and Patty) Moon, and pizza with Jimmy Gorham. TALK ABOUT YR BANNER DAY!

The Spirit-Warner Brothers TV show

I never heard of this. Kind of appealing in its simplicity.

More Invented Operatic Types

Felt-tip practice.

Poor Man's Z-Brush- Sculptris

I've probably been told about this before. 

I'm going to try to do a caricature with the tool this weekend. This was just dabbling, getting to know it. Very unsophisticated and ugly. But taught me how simple and straight forward it is.

In case anyone else wants to download it. Small program. Lots of fun. 

Second attempt. This time with a pushed around ball instead of a generic head , head-start.

Going to the Opera Next Week

San Diego Opera has been doing a cool thing for a while now--they open up their final dress rehearsal to artists interested in sketching the performers.  I happened to be stationed next to Scott Benefiel's table at San Diego Comics Fest when the Opera's media relations guy stopped by to invite Scott to participate. He said Eric Shannower had suggested our mighty Buncake. I of course butted in and said, "I wanna do it, too!"

The gentleman from the Opera couldn't fabricate an excuse fast enough to squelch me, so looks like next week I'll be heading down to the Civic Center to draw some singers and sets. This doodle was just a spontaneous manifestation of my excitement.

El, hope you feel better.

Getting over a cold

Drew this after I did a little work on the light table.

Hope my energy is back tomorrow.

I could use it.

This was a podcast put out by the guy that started the Ok Comic Creators. Scott Sackett.

Some interesting history of that period not so long ago 1995.

Mike Kennedy sued out of business.

I've met Mike a couple of times now. Nice guy.

Many of us were at Blue Sky. I was taking The Bounty of Zone Z to Comic-Con.

People were alive that are now dead.

Made a couple of selection channels to get quick big effects with and goofed with it.

 Index card doodle with photoshop enhancement.

Word Science is out!

Our new game, Word Science, is out on all mobile devices!  If you like word games you'll really like this... it's pretty fun, and I'm a horrible speller!
Word Science FB page!
Monte did all of the art on the game... I just made a few suggestions here and there, but it's a really fun, well made game.

Emerald City Comic Con

I got an e-mail confirmation that I'm a registered professional, and we booked our flights and made hotel reservations.  What's a good night for a get-together this time around?  Friday?  Saturday?  Sunday?  What day did we do last year?

Good Photoshop Balloon Tricks

Manga Studio is great at balloons. But someone posted these. I thought some of them invited more hand made looks to your balloons than MS provides.

Ben Caldwell copying. My new version of Inktober

Going to try to take about an hour a day and do these studies from his book Action Cartooning 

(or Fantasy Cartooning, I have both, spiral bound together, one of my Kinko Frankenstein books)

Tumbr Post

I was trying to directly use the notes from the book. 

My desire to put in those pointy shoulders makes that far arm totally wrong.

That shoulder shouldn't be visible.

Couldn't stand it. Corrected in Photoshop.

About 45 minutes in study time
Not meant as a comment on my life, 
but Cute girls do not come naturally to me. 
This study is good for me.
If it's wrong on a cute girl, the cute is gone

 Cute is coming closer.

FRIDAY FILM FRAME: "Now You See Me"

Back from our holiday in Virginia. Good times. My arm is getting better.

We watched "Now You See Me" (am I wrong to want to tack an ellipses on the end of this?). Y'know, that recent film about a rag-tag foursome of magician pulling some kind of bank job and upsetting rumpled FBI agent Mark Ruffalo in the process?

In my inexpert opinion, this movie is a great example of poor directing. There is bad writing here, to be sure, (whoever came up with that "twist ending" should have some sort of legal liability toward anyone who purchased a ticket), and what I'm criticizing as "directing" might be the result of a weak director pulled in too many conflicting directions by outside forces (maybe the stars, or the producers or marketers--or even his astrologist, by the looks o' things), but the inconsistent characterization, and ham-handed attempt at (as magicians call it) "misdirection" time and again blows any interest he is able to generate in the story and/or characters.

Very frustrating. Esp'ly 'cuz there were some promising elements, (magic! revenge against bad banks!). And good actors (Morgan Freeman! Michael Caine!). And an intriguing set-up...or three.

All of which the director completely fumbles...and then tries to hide with gimmicky, cliché montages of:
Police convoys!
Hi-fructose hand-to-hand combat!
Endless foot pursuits! (hey! let's have them chase the bad guys into a Mardi Gras parade! Yeah, that's original!)...and hi-tech-y surveillance type stuff (kids today love tech!)...and super-involved, who-gives-a-crap car chases!! And fake deaths!!...and...and...ugh.

On the plus side: Woody Harrelson.

 But seriously--if you're looking for an irritant that might provoke you to actually physically punch your viewing device, watch this movie all the way to the end. Even the actors seemed to throw up their hands and say, "Whatever."

Hulk Not Like!

Selling it on Ebay of course.

 Color version is ripping the colors from a sunset beach photo
( Hulk obviously not green- to color seers anyway)
Filtered with brush stroke filters, smeared, to bring down the line.
Idea was to have something to paint into on the cintiq.
(this is all mouse)
I want to paint with a  brush that rotates a squarish tile as I paint.
Make it "thick" paint looking.

Time Stretch Globe!

Maybe this is what we need Ellis; or maybe not.  It would be good for dealing with tight deadlines, but wouldn't you emerge slightly older than your friends who didn't use the globe?  If you used it too much you would be an old man while your friends were still in college. 

And you still wouldn't get any more total work done in your life, you'd just get it done sooner and die sooner.  Unless it actually stretched your personal life span as well. In that case Krypton should have encased their entire planet in one giant time stretch globe!

I guess if you stood outside the globe and watched Jor-El, he would seem to be moving at ten times normal speed.

This is why Silver Age comics were good for kids.  They really stretched your mind.